‘Geneva-2 talks is an exercise in shadow fake diplomacy’

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, professor of economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, founder and director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal and editor of the globalresearch.ca website. He is the author of The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003) and America’s “War on Terrorism” (2005). His most recent book is entitled Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War (2011). He is also a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His writings have been published in more than 20 languages.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov head for their seats after greeting each other before the start of their meeting at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Paris, January 13, 2014.(Reuters / Pablo Martinez Monsivais) / Reuters

Decisions on the Syrian issue will be taken behind closed doors, and the main question will be "Who is behind the terrorists," Michel Chossudovsky, Director of the Center for Research on Globalization, told RT.

RT:Western leaders are undertaking a
last-ditch attempt to pressure the Syrian National Council into
participating in the forthcoming talks in Geneva. Do you think
they will succeed?

Michel Chossudovsky: I think the fundamental
issue is to address the nature of the conflict. The Syrian
National Council is virtually a defunct organization. They have
been meeting in Spain with other opposition groups but in effect
we have to ask a question: ‘Is this a civil war between
opposing factions within Syrian society or is it in fact a war of
aggression?’ I think at the moment what is striking is the
fact that there is a merger of the insurgency in Iraq and Syria:
it’s the same Al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations, Al-Qaeda in
Iraq, and the Levant, which are waging war against both
countries. And the question is who is behind them. We know that
there are intelligence operations, we know that Saudi Arabia is
supporting those rebels and we also know that the United States
is now supporting the New Islamic front which was created back in
November, which is considered to be some kind of moderate
grouping of Islamic organizations. In effect there's ample
evidence to the fact that the Western military allies are
supporting various Islamic rebel forces.

RT:The Western leaders are becoming very
aware of the consequences of what’ll happen, aren't they? It’s
interesting to hear that many are suspecting now Assad might be
the lesser of all evils. And yet at today's Friends of Syria
meeting a very different message came from the French Foreign
Minister. He said that Assad’s regime is fueling terrorism.
What’s your take on that?

MC: These are cynical statements. The Western
military alliance has been recruiting mujaheddin right from the
outset and it’s confirmed by numerous reliable sources, including
Israeli Intelligence. These jihadist forces are operatives of the
Western military alliance and it’s continuing right from the
Afghan-Soviet war. For the West to say that Assad is allied with
the terrorists is a red herring. They are still intent upon
destabilizing Syria as a nation state and in fact, [...] with the
situation in Iraq and Syria, what they want to do now is to
redraw the map of the Middle East.

RT:But it is contradicted by the fact that
the West is holding the conference in Geneva, it wants peace in
Syria.

MC: Yes, but this peace conference scheduled for
the next week in Montreux is an exercise in shadow fake
diplomacy. Ultimately, a decision won’t be taken there, they’ll
be taken behind closed doors between John Kerry and Sergey
Lavrov. But very important, Sergey Lavrov made the statement back
in November that the Geneva-2 peace talks should focus on
counterterrorism. That raises an issue because they’ll be sitting
at the table together and then the question is: ‘Who is
behind the terrorists?’ There will be a number of countries
there, I suspect Saudi Arabia might be present at those meetings
in Montreux. But who are the sponsors of the terrorists, who is
feeding them the weapons? Just a few months ago, Senator John
McCain had a photo shaking hands with leaders of the terrorist
organizations inside Syria. We must understand that the western
military alliance also has blood on their hands. It’s not simply
an issue of identifying terrorists, we have to identify the
people who are behind them.

RT:With these interesting signals that are
coming from western leaders and western spokespeople, what do you
make of Assad’s future? Many say that he has support within
Syria…

MC: I think Assad has support within Syria
because the Syrian people realize that this is a war of
aggression with mercenaries coming in and these mercenaries are
coordinated by special forces. They understand that. And when you
[look at] the massacre that took place recently in Adra, well,
the civilian population understood who came to the rescue with
Syrian Armed forces against these terrorists. I think it’s
shocking to say the least that the massacre in Adra was covered
by some, for example, by Russian media, but it was not covered by
Western media.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.